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It would be helpful to know whether or not rifles were being fired on the range at the time of the incident.

A small caliber handgun round is highly unlikely to pass completely through one person's head and inflict a serious wound on a second person, but a ricochet from a centerfire rifle could.

This is of course just another speculation because we don't have nearly enough information to draw any useful conclusions.

Here's some additional info, including an allegation of a suicide pact, from an Australian newspaper. It includes a photo of the outdoor range setting.

seamusTX wrote:

• The women were identical twins.
• The injured woman is unconscious.
• Police do not know which is which.
• The handgun they were using was rented.
• The women had rented weapons at the range previously.
• Surveillance video shows them falling out of the shooting stall simultaneously.
• No one else entered the stall or could have shot them, according to authorities.
• Police still do not know how many bullets struck the victims or who fired the weapon or weapons.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16632861" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/email_pus ... 03286.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems strange that they don't know how many weapons were involved. Surely the range kept a record. Since the women were temporary visa holders and not criminals, they most likely did not have a weapon of their own.

- Jim

This is getting really interesting.

The new information, while still sketchy, puts an intentional shooting of both people by one of them at the bottom of the likelihood list, and moves a ricochet off the backstop or some other material close to the top, along with an intentional or accidental shooting by someone else at the range.

The question about number of weapons may be due to the nature of the wounds. If one victim had a through and through penetration and the other has a bullet lodged in her body, investigators will have to answer the question of whether the same bullet caused both wounds or whether they were caused by two different bullets. If two bullets were involved, it raises the question of whether or not more than one weapon was involved.

Based on the information that both women fell at virtually the same time, I'd lean toward a single bullet mechanism of injury if the wound pattern and the relative positioning of the two victims immediately prior to the injuries would allow for that. Their positioning and the wound entry points should provide a strong indication of the direction the projectile or projectiles came from, which should answer the question of a direct shot or a ricochet. That answer should provide a direction for moving the investigation forward.

cbucher wrote:The details will be interesting to hear. My son lives near there and I will be up there Wendsday for his wedding. Sounds like possible mishandling or accident at this point.

There's very little detail here, but 1 dead and 1 wounded doesn't fit the normal profile for an accident.

Women don't usually get involved in shooting situations with each other unless the underlying issue is a rivalry for the attentions of a love interest.

It will be interesting to see what the investigation determines.